The present invention relates to the field of animal care products, particularly to an adjustable collar.
People have kept small animals, such as dogs and cats, as pets for untold millennia. For both the safety of the pet and the safety of others, an important factor in responsible animal ownership is providing for the safe and efficient restraint of the animal, while maximizing the comfort of the animal. In addition to pets, non-pet animals, such as might be found in zoos, occasionally require restraint.
The most common means of animal restraint, at least for many small animals such as cats and dogs, has been through the use of collars placed around the animal""s neck. A well-designed animal collar must conform to such requirements as closeness of fit, strength, durability and good looks, and availability of options such as points of attachment for identification and license tags, or leashes. A type of collar sometimes used is a harness, which encompasses in varying degrees, some part of the shoulders and neck. The art has long needed improvements in animal collars that address closeness of fit. Closeness of fit is primarily important for two reasons. First, many small animals, such as cats and dogs, have heads that are not much larger in diameter than the diameter of their necks. Accordingly, if a collar fits too loosely, the animal may xe2x80x9cback-outxe2x80x9d of the collar; that is, by applying retrograde pressure against the restraint of the collar, the animal can pull a loosely fitting collar backwards over its ears and escape. Additionally, a too loose collar invites entanglement with such objects as fences and tree limbs, often with disastrous strangulation to the animal and heartbreak to the owner. However, a too tight collar or harness should also be avoided. A collar that is too tight is both uncomfortable for the animal and liable to interfere with breathing, especially as the animal exercises, and can possibly lead to chafing, sores, or infection.
The issue of closeness of fit is also a variable requiring periodic adjustment. If an animal is acquired as a juvenile, such as a puppy or kitten, it will require a number of size adjustments to its collar as it grows. An adjustable animal collar that is adjustable over a wide plurality of lengths obviates the need to buy replacement collars as the animal grows. Even as an adult, an animal may gain or lose weight, and require adjustment to the size of its collar. However, adjustment must be dependable, that is, it must be easy to adjust when needed, but not change adjustment in response to the activities of the animal.
The traditional means for providing adjustment is that of providing a plurality of holes near one end of a circumferential collar, designed to be engaged by a locking pin of some sort. The obvious shortcoming of this system is that there is no adjustability between holes in the collar, and animal owners must sometimes choose between holes that may be too tight or too loose, or else drill an additional hole between two pre-existing holes. Such a drilling task can be arduous, depending on the collar material, and can mar the appearance of the collar. Each new adjustment location requires a new hole to be drilled, possibly filling the collar with a plurality of unsightly and weakening holes.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to provide adjustment with a traditional, hole and pin, collar, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,514 to Stout, et al. The ""514 device employs a multiple buckle system to lock adjustments that while perhaps effective, adds numerous parts and layers of collar material to a device where simplicity is desired.
Strength of the collar is rarely an issue, when not weakened by additional adjustment holes, as it is quite feasible to manufacture a collar of modern materials that most animals cannot break. In fact, as discussed in the context of a too loose collar above, a problem with animal collars is inherent in their very strength. Since the collar is likely to be stronger than the animal, the animal faces a real danger of strangulation should the collar become ensnared on an object such as a fence or tree limb. Making a xe2x80x9cbreak-awayxe2x80x9d collar, as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,725 to Miller, is a dubious proposition, as an animal can strangle due to a continuing applied pressure, such as when caught on a fence, that is much lower than the momentary pressure exerted when an animal lunges against its restraint. As such, a break-away collar is apt to either release prematurely when an animal lunges against its restraint, or else fail to release in a true choking situation. Accordingly, most animal owners eschew the break-away concept and rely instead on a closely fitting collar, with all the attendant problems noted above, to safely restrain their animals.
Animal owners desire a collar that is durable and good looking. A traditional material is leather, but this has numerous drawbacks. Leather is difficult to keep clean, and is susceptible to water damage. This is particularly apparent with animals that live outdoors, or who enjoy playing in water, as a leather, or even fabric or otherwise xe2x80x9cweather resistantxe2x80x9d collar can rapidly become moldy and offensive with repeated wetting.
For all the aforementioned reasons, an entirely new direction in adjustable animal collars has been needed. Ratchet and pawl technology has been available as a means of securing bindings of various types for some time. In a very common embodiment, this mechanism works by providing a winding mechanism that winds a predetermined amount of strap onto the winding mechanism. At least one ratchet attached to the winding mechanism is releasably engaged by at least one pawl, generally engaged with the teeth of the ratchet mechanism by a spring-loaded device. The shape of the cooperating teeth of the ratchet and the pawl allow one way tightening of the strap. The ratchet is released by moving the pawl away from and out of engagement with the teeth. Such a mechanism is typified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,266 to Chou. As is typical of this type of embodiment, a rotatable handle in the ""266 device allows leverage to be applied to the ratchet and pawl mechanism to increase the mechanical advantage during tightening and thereby to tighten the strap very tightly. Obviously, provision of such a mechanical advantage in an animal collar would be highly dangerous, as it could easily be over tightened.
In a different embodiment, ratchet and pawl technology is seen in the strap tightening device of U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,383 to Bingold. In the ""383 device, the ratchet is a series of linearly arranged teeth molded into the strap on a pair of two-loop, disposable, plastic law enforcement restraints (handcuffs). The teeth of the ratchet have, in relation to the strap, one angulated side and one right angle side. To tighten the strap, the strap needs only be pulled such that the angulated sides of the ratchet teeth encounter the pawl first. This tends to displace the pawl away from the strap, allowing the strap to pass. As the ratchet teeth pass the pawl, the pawl, under spring load, returns toward the strap behind the passing tooth, and prevents backsliding of the strap. Unless the spring load is released, the strap can only be tightened. In fact, the ""383 device has no provision for loosening, and must be cut off to release the device. Besides the impracticality, in the context of animal collars, the adaptation of this technology would also be highly dangerous for another reason. Since the strap can only be tightened, and tightens automatically as the strap is advanced, any struggling or manipulation of the collar by the animal can only tighten the collar. This is dangerous in an animal control context, where a positive safety device should be employed to prevent the animal from either tightening or loosening the collar on its own. As an animal may become increasingly panicked when a collar tightens, such a ratchet and pawl device without a positive safety device is likely to tighten further as the animal struggles, thus further panicking and endangering the animal.
A combination of the linear ratchet of the ""383 type and the mechanically advantaged ratchet and pawl of the ""266 type is seen in snowboard bindings, as typified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,959 to Dodge. While the snowboard binding of the ""959 device provides a means of releasing the spring load on the pawl to release the strap, this design in unsuitable for the animal collar application of the instant invention for at least two of the reasons elucidated above. First, the mechanical advantage could allow dangerous force to be applied to an animal""s neck, and second, the absence of a positive lock would prevent the animal owner from locking the tightening mechanism so that the animal could not inadvertently tighten or loosen the collar around its own neck.
Accordingly, the art has needed a means for improving the art of animal collars. While some of the prior art devices attempted to improve the state of the art of animal collars, none has achieved the unique and novel configurations and capabilities of the present invention. With these capabilities taken into consideration, the instant invention addresses many of the shortcomings of the prior art and offers significant benefits heretofore unavailable. Further, none of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.
In its most general configuration, the present invention advances the state of the art with a variety of new capabilities and overcomes many of the shortcomings of prior devices in new and novel ways. In its most general sense, the present invention overcomes the shortcomings and limitations of the prior art in any of a number of generally effective configurations. An object of this invention is to provide an adjustable animal collar, which can include various designs of harness. Further objects of the invention are to provide a good looking, strong, and safe animal collar.
In its most general appearance the instant invention embodies an adjustable animal collar, comprising in part a strap with a housing connected at a first end and a second end. The housing receives the second end of the strap, completing the circumferential nature of the collar about an animal""s neck. The collar provides means for positive closure with an engagement region formed with a plurality of teeth in the strap that are engaged by a pawl in the housing.
The pawl pivots within the housing about a first axis and has an engagement end and a disengagement end located on opposing sides of the first axis. The pawl is pivotably biased with a biasing means such that the engagement end is biased to rotate in an engagement direction about the first axis. This tends to keep the pawl engaged with at least one tooth of the engagement region and prevents the collar from releasing unless the pawl is actively disengaged. In one embodiment, the biasing device is at least one torsion spring.
Various arrangements of pins or bosses and recesses are used to rotatably retain the pawl in the housing and to allow the pawl to alternatively engage and disengage at least one of the plurality of teeth. In embodiments using a pin and recess combination, the pawl may rotate about a non-rotating pin, or the pin itself may rotate.
An important feature in some embodiments of the collar is at least one locking safety device. The safety device has at least two functions. It prevents the unintentional release of the pawl, and thereby, the unintentional release of the collar. Perhaps more importantly, it locks the collar at a predetermined tightness, so that the animal cannot endanger itself by tightening the collar. The safety device can act, among other methods, through releasable engagement with the pawl, by directly engaging the teeth, or through compression of at least one part of the strap; and can move in a linear, rotary, or other direction as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art.
An attachment device is movably secured to the strap, by which various accessories, such as tethers or leashes, can be attached to the collar. A cover plate may be releasably secured to the housing and formed to substantially cover the pawl, thereby protecting the pawl mechanism and enhancing the appearance of the collar.
The collar may be fabricated such that the housing further includes a rigidity insert, fabricated of a material with greater rigidity than the housing, increasing the overall rigidity and durability of the collar. The rigidity insert may display a safety indicia area when the safety device is in the unlocked position, potentially alerting the user as to the locked or unlocked status of the safety device.
The collar may incorporate various accessory capacities. These can include, by way of example and not limitation, such items as an insert region, wherein items like identification indicia such as name tags or licenses may be inserted into the collar. Additionally, the collar may provide for the attachment of additional items such as, by way of example and not limitation, electric fence sensors or electric training aids, through the provision of at least one accessory attachment engager.
The adjustable animal collar of the instant invention enables a significant advance in the state of the art. The instant invention is, in addition, widely applicable to a large number of applications. The various embodiments, as would be understood by one skilled in the art, would be suitable to any application requiring a potentially finely adjustable, positive closure that is lockable. Such applications could include, by way of example and not limitation, watch bands, arm or waist bands formed to hold accessory devices, or sports hats or caps. The preferred embodiments of the apparatus accomplish this by new and novel arrangements of elements that are configured in unique and novel ways and which demonstrate previously unavailable but preferred and desirable capabilities.
It is to be understood, however, that the same or equivalent functions and features may be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of the invention.